<html>
<style TYPE="text/css">
 body, td {
   font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica;
   font-size:12px;
   margin:0px;
   padding:0px;
 }
 
  .content {
 	margin-left:10px;
	margin-right:10px;
	line-height: 16px;
 }
 
 li {
   font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica;
   font-size:12px;
   line-height: 24px;
   list-style-type:disc;
  }
 
 h2 {
  text-decoration: none ;
  color: #FFFFFF;
  font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica;
  font-size:16px;
  line-height:24px;
  background-color:#6699CC;
  padding:10px;
 }

 h3 {
  text-decoration: none ;
  color: #000000;
  font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica;
  font-size:13px;
  line-height:20px; 
 }

</style>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#eeeeee">
<center>
<table width="750">
  <tr>
    <td><h2>The bFree  Application</h2>
      <div class="content">The <b>bFree</b> application extracts the data and
        organization from a Blackboard&#153;
        
        course "Export" (or "Archive") zip file, and creates either a web site
        or a folder hierarchy with the extracted information. The web site
        or the folders exhibit the same structure and names as the original Blackboard&#153; course.<BR>
        <BR>
        In addition, the web site uses a cascading style sheet that can be customized
        to have an appearance and "branding" suitable for any organization or
        person.<br>
        <br>
        <b>bFree</b> thus allows course authors to:
        <ul>
          <li>conveniently retrieve texts and other materials that might not
            otherwise be available outside of Blackboard&#153;
          <li>produce independent course web sites with the same content and
            structure
          <li>preview and extract individual files and other content
          <li>easily share the course data or web site with others
        </ul>
      </div>
      <h2>How to Export from Blackboard&#153;</h2>
      <div class="content">Given that you have administrative privileges for
        a course (and you do if you are the course's author), navigate into the
        Blackboard&#153; course, then:
        <ul>
          <li>click on the "Control Panel" link (in the left-hand navigation
            area) to open the Control Panel
          <li>in the "Course Options" area of the Control Panel, click on "Export
            Course"
            
            (or "Archive Course")
          <li>on the "Export Course" (or "Archive Course") page, select the items
            you would like to export (so that <b>bFree</b> can extract them)
          <li>check the "Settings" box, which provides some basic course information
          <li>then click the "Submit" button
        </ul>
        Another page appears, displaying a link to the Export (or Archive) zip
        file; save this to your computer or other file system. Then click the "OK" button
        on that page.
        <br><br>
        <b>We recommend that you keep your archive file</b> even after you have extracted
        your content from it, so that you can reuse it to get improved results as we improve and extend
        the accuracy and thoroughness of <b>bFree</b>.
      </div>
      <h2>Using bFree</h2>
      <div class="content">When you open <b>bFree</b>, you will see two menus at the top,
         a title and logo,
         and a large tabbed display area. The display area is split into two areas;
         it will be used to hold an outline of your Export (or Archive) zip file, and
         previews of content items in that outline.<BR>
        <h3>The Menus</h3>
        The items in the <b>File</b> menu, and the actions produced by choosing them are:
        <ul>
          <li><b>Open an exported zip file ...</b> asks you to choose a Blackboard&#153;
            archive or export zip file
            from your computer or other file system; the content outline will then be
            displayed.
          <li><b>Hide non-content items</b> Some course section folders may contain no
            data (or <b>bFree</b> does not handle the type of data yet); this choice takes
            empty folders off the display. <b>Note:</b> You should hide
            empty folders before extracting a web site, to avoid broken or empty links.
          <li><b>Extract as files/folders ...</b> asks you to choose or make a folder,
            then extracts the course content into that folder, creating a folder and file
            hierarchy that parallels the organization of the original course.
          <li><b>Extract as a web site ...</b> asks you to choose or make a folder,
            then extracts the course content into that folder as a set of web
            pages and files that parallel the organization of the original course. 
            <b>Note:</b> To view your new web site,
            open the "index.html" file in your browser.
          <li><b>Extract the selection ...</b> asks you to choose a location and file name,
            then extracts only the selected content item into that file.
         <!--
          <li><b>Obtain example templates ...</b> asks you to designate a location
            at which a folder containing a set of the default templates will
            be deposited; you can modify the templates, then use them to generate
            a custom web site
          <li><b>Create a custom web site ...</b> asks you to locate a set of
            page templates, then designate a folder in which a customized web
            site will be created from the course information
         -->
        </ul>
        Also <b>note</b> that you can right-click on the outline and preview areas to see
        pop-up menus with the same items.<br><br>
        The items in the <b>Search</b> menu are discussed below, in the section titled
        "The Search Feature".
        <h3>The Display</h3>
        After you open an Export (or Archive) zip file, its contents and organization
        will be displayed as a standard hierarchy of folders, subfolders and
        files in the large display area in the middle of the window.<BR>
        <BR>
        For each item in the hierarchy, there are entries in the table on the
        right-hand side. The table columns are:
        <ul>
          <li><b>Type</b> tells what the entry represents within the actual Blackboard&#153; 
            course:
            <ul>
              <li>"Course" is the overall course itself
              <li>"Section" is a course section as listed in the main (left-hand)
                navigation menu within the original course
              <li>"Folder", "Website", "Assignment", "Staff", and so on, are any of the 
                several content items within a section,
                usually consisting of a title (also the item's title in this
                display), a description, and perhaps an attachment
              <li>"Course Uploads" and "Group Uploads" contain lists of uploaded files
              <li>"Wiki" contains individual wiki pages and files uploaded to them
              <li>"File" is any file attached to an item
              <li>"Link" is a URL associated with an item
            </UL>
            With further development, there will be other types supported as
            well.
          <li><b>Extract?</b> when this box is checked, this item is designated
            to be extracted
          <li><b>Created</b> and <b>Updated</b> are dates, as indicated (this
            information cannot always be established)
        </ul>
        Since <b>bFree</b> maintains the folder hierarchy when extracting content,
        it insists on checking the "Extract?" boxes in the path from "Course" to
        anything you choose to extract; this makes checking these boxes a little
        odd:
        <ul>
          <li>unchecking or checking a box at a higher level automatically unchecks
            or checks all its subordinates
          <li>unchecking a lower-level box does not affect higher-level entries
          <li>checking a lower-level box automatically checks the boxes in the
            path up to the "Course" entry.
        </ul>
        There are five tabs on the display area. Each tab will display some combination
        of the outline described above, plus other information:
        <ul>
         <li><b>Course Contents</b> combines the outline,
            with a preview of the item currently selected in the outline
         <li><b>Messages</b> shows the outline and a useful log of all processing messages,
         including any errors that may occur
         <li><b>Help</b> displays the outline and this help document
         <li><b>Copyrights</b> gives the details of the copyrighted materials
            contained in this application
         <li><b>License</b> presents the distribution license for this application
        </ul>
        <h3>The Preview Area</h3>
        The content preview area of the Course Contents tab in the display will do its best
        to show you the content of any item that you have selected in the outline. You can
        click on the outline items directly, or search for text in titles or descriptions,
        or use the down- and up-arrows on your keyboard to step through the outline. The kinds
        of things that can be previewed are:
        <ul>
         <li><b>Descriptions</b>: when the course, a section, or any other folder is selected,
         its description, if available, is previewed. The description might be plain text
         or HTML, and might include images.
         <li><b>Images</b>: images that you have uploaded into Blackboard&#153; can be previewed.
         <li>Other <b>files</b>: if you select a file that <b>bFree</b> cannnot itself preview
            (such as a word processor file), you will be given a link to click
            to open the required application to preview that file.
         <li><b>Link</b>: a link to an external web page will display the actual page, just as a
            browser would; however any links on that page will not be active (it's just a preview).
        </ul>
         <h3>The Search Feature</h3>
         The search feature appears at the bottom of the window when the Course Contents
         tab contains an outline. It lets you find items whose titles or descriptions contain 
         text of interest to you. (Recall that Blackboard&#153; lets you enter a description
         of any page in a course.)
         The search feature has the following components:
         <ul>
            <li><b>Titles</b> and <b>Texts</b> (descriptions) checkboxes to tell where
               to search
            <li>a text field into which you can type text to find within titles and/or
               descriptions
            <li>the <b>1st</b> button finds the first title or description containing the text;
               pressing Return or Enter in the text field has the same effect
            <li>the <b>Next</b> button finds the next occurrence of the text
            <li>the <b>Prev</b> button find the previous occurrence of the text
            <li>the <b>Last</b> button finds the last occurrence of the text
            <li>the <b>Tidy</b> checkbox, when selected, makes the search first collapse 
               the display of the previous find, then finds (and expands) the next occurrence;
               if unchecked, each occurrence is left expanded when the next is found
         </ul>
         The <b>Search</b> menu contains items for the search area buttons and checkboxes.
         <h3>Disk Space Note</h3>
         The <b>bFree</b> application unzips your selected export or archive file
         into a temporary folder in your "home" directory when possible. If there is
         not enough space there, or the home directory is locked, you are prompted
         to choose another location. If you wish to force the application to use
         a different location, restart the application, and hold down the Shift key
         when clicking the Open button.<br><br>
         The <b>bFree</b> application makes every effort to delete the temporary
         folder before quitting. You can find the location of that folder in the Messages
         tab. It is safe to delete it when <b>bFree</b> is not open.
      </div>
      <!-- for Version 2; needs changes and updates
      <h2>Customizing the Templates</h2>
      <div class="content">Any web site that <b>bFree</b> creates is generated
        using a small set of simple HTML templates. Each template has the basic
        HTML for a particular page layout, plus a keyword or two indicating where
        content that is produced by <b>bFree</b> should be inserted. The keywords
        are of the form
        
        "BflatUnzip$xxx$", and each different keyword refers to a different kind
        of content. <BR>
        <BR>
        You may obtain a folder containing these page templates by clicking the
        appropriate button in the <b>bFree</b> window. Then you can modify or
        expand the pages to suit your needs or tastes, being sure to keep the
        keywords where you would like the content to be inserted. <BR>
        <BR>
        The restrictions on your design, if you wish to generate the web pages
        using your modified templates are:
        <ul>
          <li>the templates must keep the names as given
          <li>all the templates must be present
          <li>the "framesets" defined in the index page must remain
          <li>a page accepts only the data indicated by the keyword(s) in the
            example page
        </ul>
        Of course, you can extract the content once, then use it in any way you
        please, rather than relying on the templates.<BR>
        <br>
      </div>
      -->
      <h2>Customizing the Web Pages</h2>
      <div class="content">
         The web site that <b>bFree</b> creates consists of:
         <ul>
            <li>a cascading style sheet file that is used by all pages
            <li>an "images" folder for images used by the style sheet
            <li>an index page customized for the course
            <li>additional pages customized for the various sections and sub-sections of the course
            <li>Folders named after some pages, containing files referenced by those pages
         </ul>
         You can modify the style sheet and images (being sure to leave the names
         intact) to customize the look of the site.
      </div>

      <h2>System Requirements</h2>
      <div class="content">
         The <b>bFree</b> application is written in the Java programming language, and requires
         that the latest Java software be installed on the computer.<br><br>
         The latest Java software for your desktop computer can always be obtained at:<br><br>
         &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; http://java.com<br><br>
         <b>bFree</b> has been tested successfully on Windows XP and Mac OS X, and has extracted
         data successfully from Blackboard&#153; 6.3.and 7.0 archives.
         <br><br>
      </div>

      <div class="content">
        <hr>
        <b>Note:</b> Blackboard&#153; is a trademark of Blackboard, Inc. <BR><BR>
      </div></td>
  </tr>
</table>
</center>
</body>
</html>
